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Adult education gives high quality education for adults to improve their standard in the society, and it can be continued at any stage of their life. It helps people graduate with the help of nation’s various adult education centers and programs. It ensures people to compete in a better way in this competitive society.

There are lots of reasons for adults to return to education after some time. Adult education can help people who wish to continue their education, people who look for a career change, or people who just wish to enhance their knowledge. Adults returning to education programs offer you plenty of choices and features to study. Many new programs and various educational departments guide you with providing high quality education in an interactive manner. It offers basic knowledge regarding computer literacy, numerical ability, and correctional education. Moreover, it allows people in developing different employment opportunities. This can be done by returning to education with various adult education programs which are available in different states.

Many educational providers invite adults to return to education after a formal break. Educational centers like Adults Who Are Returning to Education (AWARE), Center for Adults Returning to Education (CARE) are few amongst the adult education continuing centers that are doing a fine job. Adults who return to education would have had different backgrounds that led to their interruption from continuing education. Instructors in these educational centers are well trained to improve their education level according to their ability. Careful adjustments are given for older students during the learning process. There are various adult education centers and programs in which adults can continue their interrupted education.

There are many foundations throughout the nation that help adults return to education with some major features. They offer many scholarships for the adults who return to education. Adult student technical college scholarships, minority/female technical scholarships, and UW-Marinette scholarships are few of the scholarships for adults who return to education in few of the states. One can continue his/her interrupted education at any stage through these educational centers for adults and many other foundations.

Adult Education provides detailed information on Adult Education, Adult Education Schools, Adult Continuing Education, Adult Education Online and more. Adult Education is affiliated with Life Centered Career Education [http://www.e-CareerEducation.com].

In today’s world people sometimes look up to celebrities and copy their styles. We all have favorite stars that we admire and we follow their styles very closely. People that follow their favorite celebrity’s styles sometimes know more about what they wear than their own families. And like to wear the same things that these celebrities wear. What these celebrities wear seems to be very important to their fans. Sometimes a designer will make a special product for a particular celebrity to wear that they know will be popular with the people that admire the celebrity. When the celebrity puts on the product and looks good wearing it, than people are more likely to buy the product. Celebrity sunglasses are so popular learn why people are so crazy about these types of sunglasses.

Celebrity sunglasses are in style with people of all ages. They like the bold colors, shapes and designs that come along with these types of sunglasses. When the celebrity looks fabulous wearing a certain item than the fans will want to follow along with the same thing. No matter what the celebrity is wearing someone will want to purchase one just like it. Sunglasses are a big fashion accessory for a celebrity. What ever style and design they choose to wear they seem to look good in them. Each celebrity has their favorite designer glasses that they swear by. These glasses make a fashion statement for the celebrity and what they are wearing. Their fans want to copy off of them to get the same look as the celebrity.

Celebrity sunglasses are so popular learn why this is a fact. The most popular celebrities endorse designer items. These items turn into a new fashion statements and are sold to many people. The name of the sunglasses is than well known and turns into a popular product that is sold to many people. Celebrity sunglasses come in a wide range of prices depending on the designer and how popular they have become. When buying celebrity sunglasses make sure that they are a style that you like and would wear and just not because your favorite celebrity is wearing them.

As long as we have our favorite celebrities to look up to there will be popular celebrity sunglasses. Most celebrities have their own sense of style and that is why there are so many popular designer glasses available to choose from. Celebrity sunglasses give us a form of expressing the styles of glasses we like to wear. Some people like to wear the big sunglasses while others prefer smaller sunglasses. Celebrity sunglasses are more fashionable and stylish than plain sunglasses. Every year sunglasses are made in new styles and designs that become very popular. All the newest designs of sunglasses are worn by our favorite celebrities. These designer sunglasses seem to never go out of style. They are sunglasses that we wear to support our favorite celebrities. These sunglasses give us the same fashion style as the celebrities we like to admire.

CTS Wholesale Sunglasses is a direct importer. We offer wholesale prices on a wide variety of sunglasses, goggles, sunglass displays, accessories, and caps. Visit our online showroom at http://www.CTSwholesaleSunglasses.com

As one of the oldest children in a family of nine, I know that cooking for a crowd can almost be a full-time job. Once-a-month-cooking has been a lifesaver for our family. In the beginning though, when we first heard of cooking 30 meals in one day, it sounded rather impossible. It was not until we had tried it, though, that we found it is not only possible, but it can even be quite simple and fun!

Blessings

If you are skeptical about taking on what might seem like an overwhelming task to you, let me first share some of the blessings which have resulted for our family from once-a-month-cooking.

o It has saved us many hours of trying to figure out what to have for dinner and answered the infamous question, “What’s for dinner?”

o We have been more readily able to show hospitality to other families when the main dish is already made and in the freezer. (We usually plan ahead for this by doubling or tripling seven to ten of the recipes on cooking day to use as “company meals.”) In like manner, it is much easier to being meals to needy families when you have casseroles in the freezer ready to be pulled out and heated at the drop of a hat. (We also plan for this by preparing many of the dishes in disposable pans.)

o It saves time (You only have to do mountains of dishes one day a month, not every day! You also don’t have to start dinner at 4:30 p.m. or earlier everyday… just pull dinner out to thaw in the morning.) and money (You can usually save quite a bit by buying in bulk).

o We are brought closer together as we spend a special day as a family cooking these meals.

o This is an excellent lesson in Home Economics for your children. Mom always has the oldest girls plan the menu, grocery list, and strategy for the cooking day. She often has us do the grocery shopping, as well.

Planning

Proper planning is essential for a successful cooking day. I usually start planning at least a week in advance. First, pick which day will be your cooking day. Clear your schedule that day. You will want to focus your energies entirely on cooking.

Menu Planning: After you have chosen your cooking day, begin menu planning. Go through your cookbooks and find recipes suitable for freezing. Strive for variety. My list usually includes: one-dish dinners, meatloaf, meatballs, layered casseroles, soups, chili, hamburgers, meatless dishes, and so on. Make sure that you include a number of family favorites, in addition to any new recipes you may be trying out. You do not want to fill your freezer with meals your family won’t find appetizing! When you write down your menu, make sure and write down the cookbook and page number the recipe came from. In addition, mark whether you are planning to double or triple the recipe.

Make Your Grocery List: Using your menu list, write down the quantities of ingredients needed for each recipe. I like to categorize like ingredients on five to seven different lists (meats, vegetables, cheese, pasta, spices, etc.). Take these lists and combine all like ingredients onto a final list. For example, if there are fifteen recipes calling for one pound of ground beef, you will write “15 pounds ground beef” on your final grocery list.

After you have made your final grocery list, make sure and check your cupboards to see what you might already have on hand. You probably have most of the seasonings. But be sure that if you need four teaspoons of garlic powder, you actually have that much in the jar. I have not checked thoroughly before, and it has been real headache.

I have found it most helpful to keep a separate “food preparation list” along with my grocery list which states what is to be done with the items which I need large quantities (Such as, if one the items on your list is “20 pounds of chicken breasts,” note beside that item how many cups need to be cooked and diced, how many chicken breasts need to be cooked and left whole, how many need to be left frozen, etc.).

You will also want to make sure you have plenty of freezer bags and foil on hand. These will be essential on your cooking day.

Cooking Day Strategy: It is wise to develop a basic cooking day strategy of what you will do when. This does not need to be an exhaustive list, but it will save you time and effort if you have planned the basic order of what you will be cooking when. If you are going to be working together as a family on cooking, plan who is responsible for what tasks. Although everyone will need to be flexible, it will definitely save hassle to have most of the schedule worked out ahead of time.

Shopping: The day before you begin cooking, do your grocery shopping. Make sure you do not rush through this. Read your list thoroughly and check to get the best deal.

Cooking

The sooner you can start in the morning, the better. Begin by cooking the meats, grating the cheese, chopping the onions, or whatever bulk preparations your “food preparation list” says you need to do. If you have planned to make soups, you should start these early on, as they usually need to cook for longer.

Cooking the meat is one of the most time-consuming projects and you will probably find you end up browning ground beef and boiling chicken most of the day! As much as is possible, use all of the burners on your stove at the same time.

Keep soapy water in the sink at all times and take turns being on “dish duty.” As soon as a dish is used, wash it. This will save you from having an enormous mess at the end of the day. You might also find it helpful to take a five-minute kitchen cleaning break every hour or so to wipe down the counters and put things away which you are no longer using.

Freezing

What do you do with the completed dishes? Here are some guidelines for freezing:

o We always designate the kitchen table as our “finished recipe” zone. We often have someone who is specifically just working on labeling things and taking them to the freezer from the kitchen table.

o Proper labeling is a key factor in making sure you know what you have in freezer. Make sure you label the containers with the recipe, the cookbook it came from, the page number, how many it serves, and any additional instructions for the dish. Also write out a list with all of the recipes you make and freeze and how many they serve on the outside of your freezer.

o Transfer soup to a big bowl and cool for about an hour. You can either place the soup in plastic freezer bags or plastic containers with lids (32 oz. cottage cheese and yogurt containers work well for this).

o Most other recipes can be transferred to plastic freezer bags. Do not fill the bags very full, as foods expand when frozen. Do not put anything which is still hot into bags. You will likely split the bag at the seams and have a gigantic mess to deal with!

o Use smaller labeled bags for cheese or anything else to be sprinkled on top once the dish is cooked. Make sure you keep these in a very accessible place in the freezer.

o If the recipe is something like lasagna which cannot be frozen in a plastic bag, freeze it in the size of pan the recipe calls for, cover with foil, and label.

I wholeheartedly encourage you to give once-a-month-cooking a try. If you are like us, you will soon wonder how you ever lived without cooking this way! You could also simplify this plan and just cook for two weeks at a time to start.

For further information, ideas, and recipes, I highly recommend you read Once-A-Month-Cooking by Mimi Wilson and Mary Beth Lagerborg and Dinner’s in the Freezer by Jill Bond.

Happy Cooking!

Crystal Paine is a 23-year-old homeschool graduate and the owner of Covenant Wedding Source, LLC (an online retail bridal business). She writes articles on a variety of topics and recently authored her first booklet for young women, The Merchant Maiden: Earning an Income Without Compromising Convictions. She lives with her husband in Topeka, KS. They are expecting their fist child in January. For more information on her business and booklet, visit her website: http://www.covenantweddingsource.com.

Do you have dreams of being able to cook like a top chef and become a star in the kitchen? If you truly want to dazzle your friends and family, with your culinary accomplishments, then you are going to need a gourmet cook book. Cooking is an art, and those persons who are well versed in this art form find it to be a most pleasurable one.

Most persons tend to shy away from gourmet cooking, incorrectly assuming that it is solely the realm of highly trained, experienced chefs. This may have some measure of truth to it but, gourmet cook books have now swung the door of culinary art wide open for all to enter. Therefore, the average person, with no major culinary experience can recreate exotic, delectable dishes simply by following the instructions of a recipe.

Gourmet cookbooks have evolved over the years. Many gourmet chefs are now openly sharing their passion not just for food, but for life in general. You may find gourmet cookbooks where the author imparts snippets of history and culture, as it relates to ingredients used in the preparation of gourmet meals; satisfying our curiosity about the world wide world of food. The books have the uncanny ability to stimulate our palates and take us to unfamiliar exotic regions, just through the food connection.

Most people have doubts about successfully using cookbooks, persons may wonder if a it will help them to really prepare meals of gourmet-standard at home. They can, and have been doing so for a long time. Attendance at a gourmet school is no longer a requirement for preparing gourmet meals. Try a few recipes incorporate them into your meal preparation time to spice up the fare at your dinner table. It is easier than you think, and it is entirely doable.

It is rather easy for some cookbooks to come across as being intimidating, but this is mostly because the dishes included within the cookbooks are largely unfamiliar to the non-gourmet chef. There are many books that are basically filled with ‘designer’ recipes that just are not practical for real people wanting to create real meals. Fortunately, the fact is, not all of them are created equal. There are books available which are simple, easy to use and will have you cooking up a ‘gourmet’ storm in not time; making you the envy of your ‘blown away’ friends and family members.

Incidentally, here is the link to a great gourmet cookbook, which I would personally recommend. It is unbelievable the number of delicious, gourmet meals that you will be able to create from the information in this cookbook. Just imagine the culinary artist that you can become by having access to a gourmet cookbook that does what it should: which is, to provide inspiring and delicious recipes that actually work. Having a cookbook like that is truly a gem. Go ahead, give it a try.

And remember, every gourmet cookbook tells a story! The world really can be brought to you on a platter. Bon Appétit!

Simply click on the image below to get started on your way to cooking like a chef from home!

So if you are looking for that perfect recipe or wanting to advance your culinary skills simply visit [http://cookbooks101.net] & start your journey to creating restaurant style dishes.

Political consulting is the business which has grown up around advising and assisting political campaigns, primarily in the United States. As democracy has spread around the world, American political consultants have often developed an international base of clients. Though its most important role is probably in the production of mass media (largely television), political consultants advise campaigns on virtually all of their activities,from research to field strategy.

The practice of consulting has several early precedents. President William McKinley’s closest political advisor Mark Hanna is sometimes described as the first political consultant. In California in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, Whitaker and Baxter established and grew the first true consulting firm, Campaigns, Inc. However, political consulting blossomed with the increasing use of television advertising for campaign communications in the 1960s. It was in that period that Joe Napolitan claims to have become the first person to describe himself as a political consultant (Perlmutter, ed. Manship Guide to Political Communication, pg19).

In the subsequent years, political consulting has grown in importance and influence and extended its reach to campaigns at all levels of government in the United States, and beyond. Many consultants work not only for campaigns, but also for other political

organizations, including parties and political action committees, sometimes through independent expenditures; some also do public relations and research work for corporations and governments. In fact, today corporations seeking approval from municipal boards have turned to land use political consultants to help earn need entitlements for their project.

Critics also blame political consulting, at least in part, for a variety of ills of the modern election process. In part because broadcast media consultants are often paid on commission, they are blamed specifically for the rising cost of political campaigns and the increasing reliance on paid media. A successful candidate running a low-budget campaign would be a serious economic threat to the political consulting field; such candidates, however, are rare.

Left-leaning activists within the Democratic Party, in particular, charge that political consultants are a major obstacle to participatory democracy, political reform, and electoral success for the Democrats. In a much-publicized e-mail on December 9, 2004, the online activist group MoveOn.org wrote, “For years, the Party has been led by elite Washington insiders who are closer to corporate lobbyists than they are to the Democratic base. But we can’t afford four more years of leadership by a consulting class of professional election losers.”

Lastly, there is growing professional opposition to what is called a cookie cutter campaign, where the themes and strategies of one campaign are transferred to another campaign, despite what may be major differences in political context. Brian Wright, president of Democrasource, LLC (an Ohio based national political consulting firm specializing in enhanced campaign data strategies and micro-targeting), believes that “it’s just a matter of time, campaign communications techniques are evolving so quickly — anyone sitting on the sidelines or clinging to the last presidential campaign’s strategies is done. The book’s been rewritten.”

Political COnsulting needs? Log on to [http://optimumresponse.com/index.htm]

Paul Davis

Optimum Response

paulxty_14@yahoo.com

In all my years of cooking, recipes most often specify quantities that serve 4-6 people. That’s great if you’re cooking for a dinner party, but most often we just want meals for ourselves, or meals for two.

There certainly seems to be a shortage of “cooking for one” recipes, or even “cooking for two” recipes. Cooking for singles seems to be low in demand but I think it is something that needs to be catered to.

When using and modifying a recipe, I have found that simply dividing the quantity of all the ingredients by 2 or 4 or whatever didn’t always result in a good meal. Sometimes it was overcooked, other times the liquid/sauce boiled away to almost nothing.

It was then I realised that although I had reduced the quantity of ingredients, I either kept the same cooking times or used the wrong sized equipment (or both). As well as that, I found that some ingredients don’t need to be reduced in quantity as much as others.

So here are some tips for cooking smaller portion sizes. I hope this will help you cook meals for yourself that taste just as nice as when you make them for 5 other people!

Cooking Equipment Size

The rule of thumb here is: smaller portion size = smaller pan size.

When cooking for 4-6 people, you obviously need larger saucepans and frypans.

Why? Firstly, the pans have to be big enough to hold all the ingredients, and secondly, they have to be the right size to allow even cooking without allowing the juices/liquids to evaporate away. I call this the quantity-of-ingredients: pan-size ratio

So, when cooking for one person, the smaller quantities mean you need to cook in a much smaller pan. That way, the quantity-of-ingredients: pan-size ratio remains more or less the same.

If you cooked in the same larger pan, the ingredients will be spread out through the pan much more thinly and will be more prone to boiling or evaporating away. The end result is you end up with dried out dinners.

Quantity Of Liquids

The rule of thumb here is: don’t reduce the liquid ingredients by the same percentage.

The thing about liquids is that they partly evaporate away during cooking. Since you’ll be cooking at the same temperatures, the less liquid you start with, the more (proportionally-speaking) will be boiled away during cooking, ultimately leaving you with food that’s either too dry or hasn’t enough sauce.

The kinds of liquids that are affected by this include:

- Evaporated milk / cream / regular milk

- Liquid stock (eg. Chicken stock, beef stock)

- Juices (such as orange juice, pineapple juice etc.)

This is by no means an exhaustive list, but gives you the idea that thinner liquids (as opposed to thicker sauces) are more prone to evaporation.

What I have found works best is that you should reduce the quantities of these liquids as half as much as you do the other ingredients.

For example, if you’re cooking a meal that the recipe says would serve 4 just for yourself, then you would divide the quantities of all ingredients by 4. For any liquid ingredients, you should divide the quantities by just 2.

If you find that there’s too much liquid left at the end of the cooking time, then either cook a little longer to boil it off, or use a slotted spoon to remove everything else from the pan leaving as much liquid behind as you want.

Cooking Time

The rule of thumb here is: reduce cooking times when cooking smaller quantities.

Similar to the above section about quantities of ingredients, I have found that cooking times can vary depending on the quantities being cooked. This is especially true for cooking in a frypan.

However, it’s difficult to come up with a hard-and-fast rule about this. With experience, I’ve learned to tell when food is cooked just by looking at it (OK, and occasionally cutting into a piece of chicken to double-check!).

The problem is that although you would be cooking smaller quantities in a smaller pan when cooking for one person, the heat levels remain more or less the same.

By the way I certainly don’t recommend reducing heat levels when cooking! Food needs to be cooked at certain temperatures to ensure it’s free from bacteria.

That leaves time as the only other variable that can be changed. Again, food needs a minimum amount of time to cook properly but overcooking isn’t good either.

I would suggest shaving about 10 to 20 percent of the cooking times off when cooking for one person or two. Of course, you should check first that the food is properly cooked (especially with items like chicken or fish) but by checking early you can avoid overcooking your food. If you think it needs a little longer then let it cook for another minute or so, and check again.

Finally, remember to enjoy your cooking. If at first you don’t succeed, just try again!

Nick Daval has been cooking simple and delicious meals for over 15 years. You can learn from his experience and pick up some great cooking tips and tricks by visiting his website’s Cooking Technique page at http://www.basic-cooking.com/cooking-technique.html.

The idea behind a conventional, commercial blog is find a money-making marketing niche and then post large amounts of high-quality, original content related to that niche on a very regular basis. If you are an excellent writer who is an expert in the subject of that blog, you might be able to post new content on a daily basis. If you don’t do this, your blog will slip in the search engine rankings and no longer be a profitable venture. So, by starting a commercial blog, you have just signed up for a full-time profession as a writer and webmaster. It would seem that a single person, regardless of how much of an expert they might be, would run out of new ideas for posts at some time and then the blog would fail for lack of new content. At some point, you might want to think about adding posts from sources other than yourself, as long as the content is original. Original content that you did not write yourself is very difficult to find unless you pay other people to create it for you.

You must also monetize your blog, meaning that you must place banner and text ads for products closely related to your blog theme. The idea there is that you will have already attracted highly targeted web traffic to your blog for the very products you are selling.

In order to have this targeted traffic in sufficient quantities to sell enough products to make all your hard work worthwhile you must do the things needed to rank high in the search engines for the best keywords for your blog. Your blog should be optimized for the search engines and you must build as many quality backlinks as you are able in as many locations as possible, all of them pointing back to your blog.

This may include submitting lots of articles related to your blog theme to different article marketing sites. You should optimize your articles to contain your foremost keyword or keywords in a ratio of 1 to 4 percent of the total words in the article. The “self-serving” links you will be permitted at the end of your article will be converted into powerful backlinks for you in the years to come. You might also want to think about paid advertising such as Google AdWords but I would not recommend that because of the high “cost to result ratio,” particularly when you are just beginning with no profits yet to pay for the advertising.

You can also post positive and pertinent comments to closely-related blogs and forums. After all this additional work is done, you may want to think about adding a squeeze page to your blog, building an opt-in email marketing list and formulating email campaigns with the purpose of encouraging visitors to return to your blog and obtain your products.

If all this sounds like a lot of work, it is and I have simply been talking, so far, about keeping and promoting a single blog related to a single theme and selling only products closely related to that theme. Under the theory that more is better and pretending that you are some sort of gifted being with endless time on your hands, why not create another blog on another popular but different theme and double your profits. How about 4 blogs, thus quadrupling your returns or 7 or 16 or 32 or even 64 blogs and becoming staggeringly wealthy in the process?

I’m sure, by this time, you can deduce where all this is leading: How is a single person going to be ever able to achieve this? This brings me to the subject matter of auto blogging. Auto blogging software was invented to automate the process of periodic blog posting to numerous blogs. At first blush, it sounds like a miracle but it is, upon close inspection, far from a perfect solution. Auto blogging software goes out onto the web and locates articles and videos that can be legally reproduced and which match the keywords related to your niche. You input these keywords into the software during the process of setting up each blog.

After this is complete, you then have to decide whether to let the software robotically post up to a specified number of articles or videos on an hourly or daily basis. Alternatively, you have the option of simply collecting those prospective posts in a folder where they will wait for your personal review. You can then pick which articles and videos will actually be posted on the blog and which will be erased. Using this option will improve the quality of your blogs considerably. It will also take more of your time.

It is crucial not to have the software post automatically. If you automate the process, you will just get a lot of rubbish on your blogs, some of which does not even apply to the individual themes of your blogs. You will be creating a bunch of blogs that no one will want to read. To make matters worse, the search engines will never list your blogs high enough that they will be seen in the listings. In short, all of your blogs will probably fail and you will have wasted all your time and money.

The good news is that there exists a middle-ground alternative to pure auto blogging and that is to post all the articles and videos by hand. It should be understood that the search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing are biased strongly in favor of blogs using purely-original, high-quality content. As we have already discussed, making such a blog is a very labor-intensive and time-consuming venture but it is frequently rewarded with listings on the first page of search engines in some of the niches that relate to your keywords. These keywords should appear frequently (up to 4%) in your posts to exhibit relevancy to your blog theme.

If you go the auto blogging route but thoroughly screen your posts before permitting them to appear publically, you will increase your odds of excellent search engine rankings. However, you will be still saddled with the search engines determining that your content is not original. The search engines will know that it has showed up elsewhere on the web previously to being posted on your blog. If you keep your content pertinent to your theme and of the highest quality and post systematically (preferably 7 days a week), you can still magnetize an abundance of traffic and fairly high search engine rankings. If you add in some absolutely original articles that you have written, your search engine rankings should go even a bit higher.

Admittedly, you are making a compromise here between top-quality content and saving time and work. Modified auto blogging provides you with a means of making up for using somewhat less-than-original content: You will now have the opportunity to build multiple blogs on different themes and hence promote different types of products in larger quantities. The perception is that while no one blog will perform as well as if it were made up totally of high-quality, original material, some or most of the blogs will, in due course, bring in some amount of cash each day. As an example, if you maintained 50 blogs averaging only $10 each in sales a day, you be raking in $500 each day, on average. That would equate to annual gross sales of $182,500 a year. If your 50 blogs averaged $100 each a day, the annual amount would be $1,825,000. No lone blog is going to provide that for you.

In actuality, you will soon discover that a number of your blogs perform very well in the long run while others bring in no income at all. Even with partial automation, posting to 50 blogs each day and promoting them all simultaneously is going to end up being more than you can manage if you hope to do the best possible job with each individual blog.

When you initially set up your blogs, take care that each is set up to be tracked by Google Analytics so that you can periodically observe and record the progress of each blog in terms of traffic. Keep a spreadsheet of these traffic results and update it frequently. After a couple months of systematically posting to all of your blogs, you will find out that some are beginning to perform very well while others are a big disappointment. You need to give this process sufficient time for your blogs to be discovered and followed.

At this point in time you must cull or get rid of all blogs that are performing below a certain standard while keeping the more lively ones. If you did away with twenty blogs out of your original 50 you could slash your total daily posting time considerably while giving complete support to just high-performing blogs. After a period of time, you might decide to remove even more and replace them with new blogs promoting new products and see how those perform.

Look at it this way: Which is better, 50 blogs bringing in $10 each a day ($500) or ten blogs earning $50 each a day ($500)? The answer is obviously ten blogs each bringing in $50 a day because the labor and time required to accomplish that is just 20% of the first option. Look at the entire process of arriving at that point like planting a garden, waiting for the plants to grow, finding the strongest plants and then weeding out all the lesser plants to provide the sturdy ones the best opportunity to grow while cutting your labor to the bone. Makes sense, doesn’t it?

Bob Gillespie

© 2011 Robert M. Gillespie, Jr.

About the Author:

Bob Gillespie writes on many subjects including multi-blog marketing. He is a full-time Internet marketer and author who lives on the island of Maui in Hawaii. Learn more about multi-blog marketing online at Bob’s blog at:

http://multi-blog-marketing.inetwyoming.com

Another blog of possible interest:

http://niche-affiliate-marketing.inetwyoming.com

Your mobility depends too much on your possession of a private vehicle. You may go for a car, motorcycle or truck as your own vehicle. But due to severe weather conditions in many regions it is not a good idea to depend on motorcycles all the time. It is also not a good idea to have a truck or SUV as they drink lot of gas and the maintenance is high. Somewhere in the middle and perfectly positioned vehicle for Desi would be a car. There are various types of cars to suite your need.

What you should have

If you are a single man and do not depend primarily on your car for commuting to your work, then go for anything as you wish.

There are coupes which have capacity for 4 persons but only two big doors. Primarily these cars are designed keeping in view for two, driver and one passenger. The other model is the sedan which has capacity for 5 and has 4 doors. This can also be called a family car. Depending on the size of the car, they are categorized as Compact, Mid-sized and Full. Compact cars are very small in size and have a good mileage per gallon too. Some manufacturers even make two seated compact cars. The power of the compact car is also little less than the cars of other categories. There are other cars that have powerful engines and are rated as sports cars.

On the contrary, if you have a big family and need more space in your vehicle, then go for van/SUV. But I wont suggest this idea to people who have just come to US, before/after marriage and don’t have any kids.

Besides, it is always your dream and desire that makes you to go for a particular type and model. But before deciding upon something, you must give a thought to the other factors like, the mileage, sitting capacity, transmission, trunk capacity, engine power, ease of driving/safety, interior, power doors and anti-theft devices. Also your affordability plays a major role in purchasing a vehicle.

Do you have a driver license yet? It is most important to have one before going for a vehicle. Various states have different rules for issuing drivers license. You can logon to Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) sites to know about the pre-requisites and methods of getting one driver license for your state. Normally it involves a written examination, minor vision test and a road test.

The never-ending comparison

Now you have to decide whether to buy a new car or a used car. I wont suggest you any thing or force you to go for what I think is right, but you must know the good and bad things involved in each.

Used Cars

* They are cheaper.

* They may be old.

* They might have more than one owner.

* They could be purchased from private parties or authorized dealers.

* They might have gone through serious maintenance/repair in the past.

* They might have gone through an accident in the past.

* Some parts/components are just about to die.

* There may not be enough warranty/guaranty on some expensive parts.

* The mileage may not be good.

* They may need more maintenance.

* They may not be reliable for long drives.

* Resale may be a headache.

New Cars

* They are not cheap.

* They are covered under manufacturer/dealer warranty.

* Their fuel efficiency must meet the specification.

* There is the satisfaction of owning a new car.

* Easy to get a finance for new car than a used car.

* No need to worry about the engine, body, suspension, tyre, batteries and interior conditions.

* Insurance premium may be higher.

* Can only be bought from an authorized dealer.

There are many other things that can be discussed as advantages and disadvantages under both the headings. However, I don’t want to focus on them right now. If you are convinced to buy a new car, then go for it.

Your target

Now it is the time for you to decide the Make, Model and Type of your car. In US you will find hundreds of Make and Models (no Hind Motors/Maruti cars of course). From a Desi prospect I would say it is better to start with Honda/Toyota/Nissan. These Japanese car manufacturers know our requirement and never ditch us on the highways. The engines are good and prices are low. They run long enough before giving up. The life of a Honda/Toyota is considered to be 300K miles. But the look and interior designs are not at par with the American/European cars.

Buying a New Car

Take a cup of coffee, chat with your friends and go through some reviews before you decide upon the make model and color of your first dream car in USA. Check for the existing/upcoming models of your car by logging onto the sites. Select the color and interior and look at the car through the simulator. The most important thing that you must consider here is that, when the next model is going to be released. If it is very soon, then don’t go for it, because after you buy your car, you will see the newer model in the market and the resale value of your car will fall drastically.

Cars with automatic transmission and power window have good resale value. ABS and anti-theft devices are added advantages. Leather interior is as per your wish.

Now you have all the details in your mind and the budget is also finalized. Next step is to study the finance market and look for the bank/credit union who gives the best APR. Also don’t forget to decide upon your auto insurance. Find out a good insurance company and try to get a quote from them. The premium varies from place to place. With all these things set up, go to the Auto-Mall of your city. Go for a test drive for the car you have already decided. Beware of the car sales representatives. They will always try to sale you the most expensive car they have. But you shouldn’t deviate from your decision. Try to bargain with them for a possible reduction in their margin and ask for extra accessories.

What is the status of the loan? Have you arranged one or you want the dealer to make some arrangements for you? Always try to bring down the APR. If you are very new to US and don’t have any credit score, you may not get a good APR. However, dont worry about the APR right now. You can always refinance the loan with a better APR after you buildup the credit history after few months of repayment of the loan.

Once the deal is final, you need to sign some papers and then provide the Insurance details if you have. Otherwise, you could also provide the insurance agents phone number and the sales representative will talk to the insurance agent to get the car insured before leaving their premises (dont worry too much for the insurance premiums now, it is important to get your car insured before you drive out of the dealers premises, however you can easily change your insurance later, if you find a better one). In case you didn’t get any insurance, you can always go for binder insurance, but they are quite expensive, but you can always cancel them in the middle once you establish your insurance with somebody else and get the refund for the unused portion of your premium.

The next thing is to make the financial paper work. You will be guided to the dealers accounts department and one of the accountants will assist you in finalizing the loan and payment for the car. At that time they will try to sale an extended warranty for another 3 years after the manufacturers warranty. It is you who will decide for that. Don’t listen to them, but evaluate it being unbiased. They will try to sale so many other things like paint guard, gap insurance etc. I would suggest not to go with all these things except paint-guard.

After everything is over, they will apply for the vehicle registration/license plate to DMV on your behalf and give you the temporary ownership license (stuck to the windshield of your car). As far as I know, they wash the car and give you a full tank as a compliment before you drive your car back home.

New cars don’t give you much trouble as long as you do all the regular oil change and maintenance in time.

Buying a Used Car

Used cars are good but not as new cars. They are much cheaper than the new cars, but at the cost of your peace of mind. You can buy used cars from either a private party or from any dealer. Here also you have to decide your budget and the make, model and year of the car that you need. Also the other main factor is the odometer reading.

There are many sites that give you the links for used cars for sale. You can also refer to the local news papers for any such advertisement. There are places in some cities where people come with their cars for auction/sale. Since you are new, don’t go to such places. Rather get contact information from news paper ads or internet. Get the details of the car like make, model and year of the car, miles it has run, condition of batteries, tires and engine condition etc.

Now go to Kelly Blue Book (www.kbb.com) or Edmund (www.edmund.com) and try to evaluate the car. KBB will ask you some question depending upon the private trading or buying from dealer. After you enter data about the private trading car, it will show you an approximate value of the car.

Private Party

If you are buying a used car from a private party, then you need to be more cautious about certain things like, the engine condition, the body condition, the interior and the accident/maintenance history of the car. Don’t go for cars that have already run almost 300K miles (for Honda and Toyota). You can start locating for used cars for sale from various sources like, news papers, local ads and internet. After locating the availability near your place, prepare your matrix.

* Call each of them to fix an appointment for trial.

* Get the VIN (Vehicle Identification Number) from the owner.

* Check for the approximate cost of the car using KBB or EDMUND sites.

* Compare the advertised price with the approximate cost that you arrived at.

* Use the VIN to find out accident/maintenance history from CarFax.com and check for any major incident. There will be a registration fee for CarFax.com, go for the one month pack.

* Talk to a mechanic for pre-purchase inspection of the vehicle. Mechanics charge around $50 per car. It is better to go to some brand names like Pep-Boys. They are good and reliable, but you may need to take an appointment beforehand.

* Go to the owner, see the car physically (for any visible dents, body color, torn airbag containers and interior) and then drive it with the owner.

* Take the car to the mechanic and have it inspected.

* (All the cars need a timing belt replacement after running for around 100K miles, so if the car is around or over 100K, then you need to figure out if the timing belt has been replaced, this information could be obtained from the CarFax report too. One thing you must remember that, in US, the auto spare parts are not that expensive, but the labor charge to install them is too high.)

* The mechanic will give you a report, in which it will indicate the current condition of the car and what needs to be fixed with a rough estimation.

* Check for the vehicle registration, is it current?

* Is the vehicle smog certified?

With the Kelly Blue Book report, CarFax report and the mechanics report, you can have a good bargain with the owner. If you really like the car and every thing looks OK to you, then start bargaining. Don’t focus more on the tires/batteries, they are not that important as the engine.

NEVER BUY A CAR THAT HAS A SALVAGED TITLE.

Once you have decided to buy the car, talk to the owner about the payment and mode of payment (check or cash). The owner has to give you a pink slip indicating that you paid for the car and it is yours now. He cant simply lodge a complaint with the police saying you have stolen his car. It is his duty to inform the DMV office about the sale and transfer of title. You should also apply to DMV for transferring the title to your name. For registration, you will need the pink slip, the insurance (get one immediately) and smog certification. After you apply for the transfer of the vehicle registration into your name, you are the proud owner of the car.

It is too cumbersome to buy a used car from a private party, sometimes it is too risky and in all the cases it is damn cheaper. For some unlucky guys it might have resulted in spending huge money on maintenance the next day. But it is not always true. However, you are supposed to visit the mechanic frequently and spend lot of time there.

Buying from Dealer

The next best thing that you can do is to buy a used car from a dealer. It may not be as cheaper as buying from private party, but 100 times more reliable. Even some dealers give warranty on the used cars they sale. They buy the used cars, clean them up, do a thorough checking of the engine and repair any damages, dents etc before putting them on sale. You don’t have to take the car to a mechanic for inspection, worry about the smog certification. But never forget to check the approximate price through KBB and have a CarFax report handy before making a deal with the dealer. Normally, good dealers don’t keep cars for sale that have any major issues like bad accident history, salvaged title etc.

Go to the dealer, talk to the sales representative about your purpose. He/she will show you all the different used cars they have that fits your requirement as well as your budget. Once you have selected the model, make and color, go for a test drive (don’t forget to check the odometer reading). If everything feels ok to you, then go to the dealers office and access their computer to logon to KBB for approximate pricing as well as to CarFax for accident/maintenance history for that car. Some dealers even do this for free. Now with all these things handy, start the bargain. You must always consider the worry free deal with the worth of the vehicle you are paying for. You may end up paying a little more than that of a private party deal, but there wont be any worries after you buy the car. If there will be any problem with the car (which is covered under warranty), you can always comeback to the dealer for having it fixed for free. The dealer may also arrange a loan for you and take care of the other formalities like title transfer etc. You will save a lot of time/worries in this. Time is important and costly in this country. So it is your call again.

After you finalize the deal, it follows the same process as a new car purchase. So finish all paper work and drive the car safely back home.

Tips

* If you own an old used car that needs maintenance and the mechanic gives you a list of jobs to be done, then do all of them once. That way you may save a lot of labor charge.

* As per my experience, buying a new car is always better than buying a used car from a dealer and buying a used car from a dealer is always safer than buying a used car from a third party.

* It seems to be a huge amount in the beginning to buy a new car. But if you compare the money spent for new (repay the loan) and used car (repair/maintenance), then over a period of 3 years they will almost equate with each other. So, why not to enjoy the ride of a new car.

Doing auto repairs at home is one of the best ways to keep a car in tiptop shape. Home auto repair is cost-efficient, too, because you can save on professional fees. All it takes to fix your car is a substantial amount of know-how plus a collection of quality tools.

For most people, doing things themselves has its own rewards. The most obvious benefit is that they get to save their hard-earned dollars. When it comes to auto repair, the same mindset applies. It is not surprising why there are many people who still prefer to fix their car in the comfort of their own homes instead of bringing their vehicle in for commercial auto repairs.

Home auto repairs allow car owners the chance to work closely with their own vehicles. They get to tinker around with their cars to identify if it needs tuning up or if a certain part needs replacing. Home auto repairs leave the responsibility in the hands of the car owner. Owners would not have to worry about mechanics mishandling their vehicles or charging them huge fees for simple auto repairs.

If you are planning on repairing your vehicle in the comfort of your own home, do thorough research first. The World Wide Web holds a lot of information regarding auto repair as well as do-it-yourself vehicle maintenance. You will also find a lot of car tips and trivia online.

It would also be wise to amass a collection of commonly used car tools and equipment. Wrenches, screws, jacks and bolts are among the tools you need to get together. You can buy ready car tool kits on the Internet. Do some comparison shopping. Look around for the best deals. Once you have narrowed down your choices to the tools that provide you with the most value for your money, it is easy to have them delivered right to your doorstep.

Auto Repair provides detailed information on Auto Repair, Auto Glass Repair, Online Auto Repair, Auto Body Repair and more. Auto Repair is affiliated with Discount Auto Parts.

Corporate marketing groups – especially bandwidth-challenged small-to-mid-sized departments – can be so focused on tactics and fire fighting that they jeopardize their marketing investment. There is a tendency to overreact to events, to tackle symptoms rather than underlying fundamental problems and to jump at the opportunity to please the boss. Many times, this kind of tactical knee jerking may be fatal.

Without great marketing, companies won’t flourish, especially those in highly

competitive markets. Yet the chaotic nature of emerging or dynamic growth

companies and the tendency to place the marketing burden on too few individuals is

a setup for failure. Promising companies may be left in the dust, or at least

handicapped at the starting gate.

Marketing Operations is emerging as an important discipline for improving

performance and measuring ROI in admired technology companies (like Intel, IBM

and Amazon) who have refined and fine-tuned their marketing organization with an

operational focus. Given the demands that these organizations face today, an

innovative approach is central to solving critical issues like results measurement,

bandwidth constraints and creativity limitations, and building value-added

outsourced supplier relationships and effectively managing budget. Many of the

best practices, efficient processes and systems approach from large company

Marketing Operations can and should be applied by emerging companies that are

serious about their marketing investment. Here’s why:

PROBLEM #1

Ill-defined metrics

Today, more than ever, corporate marketing departments need to justify their

existence. The need to measure results is unavoidable. However, the instincts and

skills that make an outbound marketing practitioner great-action-orientation,

verbal and written acuity, persuasiveness, the ability to build strong relationships-

often don’t translate into an ability or willingness to scientifically and objectively

evaluate success. Add in broken systems and the organization’s unwillingness to

pay for marketing evaluation, and it’s no surprise that many marketing departments

are unable to define meaningful success metrics.

SOLUTION

Marketing Operations ensures that the right processes are in place to establish

meaningful metrics at the front-end of marketing process, enabling the

measurement of success at key intervals, and as each program concludes.

PROBLEM #2

Slammed resources

The prevailing attitude of “doing more with less” can leave key people discouraged,

overwhelmed, near burnout, and eventually, circulating their

resumes. The consequences for organizations are costly mistakes, high turnover,

and collapsed programs when key people leave, and missed opportunities to

leverage the “ugly-stepsister-Cinderella-in-waiting” programs that never get off the

ground because of a lack of ownership.

SOLUTION

Marketing Operations addresses these resource limitations by ensuring workload is

effectively allocated, roles are clearly defined, interdependencies are understood,

team members feel satisfied with their jobs and the programs and additional

resources, whether through additional headcount or outsourcing, can be

successfully justified to executive management.

PROBLEM #3

Sketchy institutional memory

Marketing is dependent on accurate information, a historical view into past

successes and failures, and the ability to recognize patterns that link seemingly

unrelated data points. Unfortunately, knowledge in many marketing organizations is

scattered all over the company. It’s in the heads of individual workers, on shelves,

on people’s hard drives, in long forgotten filing systems. When people leave, a big

piece of organizational knowledge goes with them. Information loss is a huge

productivity killer for marketing teams. Lost insight that must be regained or

reacquired wastes previous marketing investments.

SOLUTION

Marketing Operations facilitates knowledge sharing, an enduring repository of

information and greater decision-making based on fact, as opposed to hunch.

PROBLEM #4

Constrained creativity

The best creativity comes from many brains working together in collaboration. A

consequence of the age of the “individual contributor” director is constrained

creativity. When the entire creative burden falls mostly on one outbound marketing

person, the ability to think out of the box can be severely impacted. Creative

synergy results from many minds thinking as one.

SOLUTION

Marketing Operations enables the creative process to benefit from the synergy of

team.

PROBLEM #5

Failed supplier relationships

Most successful companies can point to strong, long-term marketing supplier

relationships as integral to their success. Likewise, a pattern of failed supplier

relationships is often an indicator of marketing department failure, rather than poor

vendor performance. Unfortunately, companies that have had consistently bad

relationships with outsource suppliers often react by seizing control and bringing

everything in house. While this strategy may provides the illusion of control, it lets

marketing managers deflect blame for failures, rather than teaching them how to

manage their outsource suppliers by taking responsibility for the results. In

addition, this strategy won’t scale with the growth of the organization.

SOLUTION

Marketing Operations helps set realistic expectations and mutual accountability

between suppliers and the organization, increasing the effectiveness of outsource

partners by empowering them to act as an extension of the internal team.

PROBLEM #6

Lost discretionary budgets

Use it or lose it. Misuse it and lose it anyway. Many corporate marketing

departments are leaving discretionary budget on the table or allocating it to

the wrong initiatives. This discretionary marketing budget “Catch 22″ occurs

because:

o It’s very time consuming to manage the budget effectively, especially in companies

with broken financial systems

o Each marketing spend-decision creates more work for the one-person or small-

team

marketing department in terms of project management, measurement, supplier

management, etc.

o Doubt persists about the ability to successfully justify the expenditure to

management

o Focus is instinctively on high-visibility marketing activities and C-level executive

“requests” over fiscal management (marketing people are more inclined toward

marketing than finance)

SOLUTION

Marketing Operations facilitates implementing the system support infrastructure

and financial management discipline needed to protect precious marketing budgets.

PROBLEM #7

Narrow marketing mix

Many companies align their fate with the success of too few marketing programs.

Whether it’s lead generation, public relations, trade shows or advertising, the over-

reliance on any one particular program can derail a company-especially if a key

program unexpectedly loses momentum. In the meantime, programs that could

have had strong leverage never get a chance to prove their mettle and are forever

relegated to the “B” list.

SOLUTION

Marketing Operations puts the means in place to launch potentially high-value

marketing programs that would never otherwise get out of the starting gate.

The Bottom Line

In a nutshell, Marketing Operations is an organization’s best bet to:

o Ensure that success can be measured and replicated

o Leverage systems and processes to enable consistently excellent performance

o Encourage great marketing departments to stay together

o Allow the marketing organization to flourish, despite the unexpected, but often

inevitable, loss of a key employee.

Gary M. Katz, APR, is president and CEO of CommPros Group, a Santa-Clara, Calif.- based firm that provides marketing operations services to help companies leverage their marketing investment, plus a variety of outsourced marketing program management services to support lean marketing departments. Gary is a veteran with more than twenty years of experience in the technology industry where he directed corporate marketing, communications, public relations, lead generation and qualification, investor relations, and employee communications programs. He has served as director of communications for ShoreTel, director of corporate marketing for Aplix Corporation, senior manager of corporate communications for Insignia Solutions, and as a director, account supervisor, or preferred subcontractor for more than a dozen leading public relations and marketing communications agencies. A past president of Silicon Valley PRSA, he holds a master’s degree in organization development from the University of San Francisco and a BA degree in public relations from San Jose State University.

Many of us have closets full of used clothing that we never wear anymore. With the expansion of the internet, there are many new options for you to dispose of those unwanted used clothes. Here is a list of options for disposing your used clothing items:

Option 1: Used Clothing Stores

Start by using your search engine and the local yellow pages to locate used clothing retailers, starting with ‘Used Clothing’ stores that exist near your home. When you contact them, find out about what types of clothing that they accept. They may take shoes, shirts, pants, women’s clothes, men’s clothes or children’s clothes. Inquire about how their sales structure works and whether they buy your items or place them on consignment (paying you a percentage when your items sell). Also ask what kind of condition they accept the clothing in. You can also consider stores around the world if they offer a high enough commission percentage to cover the shipping costs.

Option 2: Online Consignment Stores

This is a recent innovation with the expansion of the online sales marketplace. Many companies are offering the opportunity for you to upload pictures of your used clothing items onto their site for sale. You can sell items in this fashion from anywhere in the world, as the seller provides the shipping services to the customer. Most of these sites require the seller to pay a commission to the site for their provided infrastructure and to cover their marketing services. Start with SellUsedClothing or your search engine for available online consignment options.

Option 3: Online Auction Sites

Online auction sites such as Ebay offer the opportunity for you to offer used clothing for sale to online bidders. You can sell any clothing item such as pants, shirts, hats, shoes, suits, ties and more. You can determine the minimum bid that you will accept and then wait to ship your item to the highest bidder. You will do well on this site if you offer Designer clothes, hard to find clothing items, or clothes that are in great condition.

Option 4: Sell Clothing to Your Friends

You can offer your clothes for sale to your friends who are the same size as you. If your clothes are in good condition, this may be a great option for you to consider.

Option 5: Have a Clothing Swap Party

Schedule a party where friends bring used clothes that they are looking to get rid of. Each person will be able to swap one item of clothing for one of similar value with another guest. Each guest will leave with a selection of used clothing items and accessories that will replace the items that they no longer wanted in their closet.

Option 6: Sell it at a Flea Market

Consider leasing a space in a local flea market for a weekend if you have a large amount of used clothing items to dispose of. You will often find that you will have the ability to lease a space for a reasonable price and will have a high volume of foot traffic to sell your items.

Option 7: Hold a Garage Sale

Schedule and advertise a garage sale at your home or contribute your used clothing items to a group garage sale to sell your items. For the items that do not sell, consider donating them to a local charity.

Option 8: Donate them to Charity

If you would rather donate your used clothing items to charity instead of selling them, search and choose a charity that would accept the items and that you feel comfortable supporting.

With all of these options available, you are sure to find a way to get rid of those used clothing and accessories items that you no longer want in your closet.

Victor Epand is an expert consultant for used clothing, used watches, and vacuum food sealers. When shopping for used clothing, used watches, and vacuum food sealers, shop only at the best online stores for sell your used clothing here, used watches, and vacuum food sealers.

Tell the Truth

Children need to know the basic facts of life, but they don’t necessarily need to know all of the facts immediately. It is important to use discretion in what children are exposed to and told. Children don’t need to know the whole truth about anything until they are of an age when they are able to understand the complexity of the situation. Many subjects are of the nature that parents can continue to build on with additional information. It is like putting knowledge into an intellectual piggy bank. The knowledge keeps building and expanding.

For example, the big one that parents know that they must introduce to their young children to is where babies come from. At age five, children certainly don’t need all of the details, but it is a good idea to introduce the subject of reproduction. Animals can provide logical opportunities. Having pets like dogs, cats and hamsters can help children become accustomed to reproduction; indeed, pets will introduce them to the whole life cycle. Later they can transfer this knowledge to people.

Another example is to be careful what children are told and overhear when parents divorce; children need to know that both of their parents love them and that they will be taken care of. They shouldn’t be exposed to a lot of information about adult problems. When parents are very upset, they can lose track of normal boundaries. Their “truth” is instead opinions and moralistic judgments coming from a victim mentality that is not appropriate for children to hear.

If you start early enough, your children will talk about sensitive subjects naturally. If you have demonstrated that you love them unconditionally, meaning that if they bring up something sensitive you won’t get blown away, they’ll feel safer asking you questions. Make sure that you have given them permission to ask for information, regardless of how sensitive it is. They will be less likely to be ignorant when it comes time to make important decisions. By the way, tell them over and over, that if they ever want to know about something, don’t be afraid to ask. Don’t just say it one time.

Good Values Are As Important As Good Information

It isn’t enough to give children information; they also need good values about the importance of using self-control and respecting for others. They need to know what your values are while theirs are in the formation stage. Do you believe that couples should have babies only when they’re married and financially able to raise children? Or, are teenage pregnancies acceptable to you? When is it a good time to become sexually active? What is bullying? What is wrong with it? What should your child do if someone is maltreating them? Your children need to know your point-of-view. As they grow up, they’ll decide for themselves, regardless of what you think, but they’ll have your values to fall back on until they’re clear about their own. Of course, it is a good idea to not expose them prematurely to people with values that are not in your child’s best interest. Media, such as news or entertainment, that children are exposed to can desensitize children to grossly inappropriate treatment of others. It is important to explain when children see situations where a person is the recipient of violence or other abusive treatment suffers, that what they saw is not the right way to treat others.

Prepare for Transitions

Sometimes there are big changes in families that children need to be prepared for. Unanticipated transitions can be terrifying to children. Examples of the kinds of transitions that children need to be well prepared for are a move to new home or school, divorce, a new sibling, a hospital stay or the pending death of a friend or relative. When possible, involve the child in making plans for the change. This builds on their social/love needs as well as their self-esteem. We all want to feel in charge of our lives no matter how old we are.

If the change is unpredictable and sudden, children need to have special attention (in such situations as a car accident, a disaster such as a house burning down, a death, or a calamity of nature like a hurricane, an earthquake or a tornado). They need a clear explanation of what happened that is appropriate for their age, and to be reassured that they are safe and given words of encouragement about how things will get better again. It is a good idea to return to normal routines as soon as possible, such as mealtime, playtime and bedtime. There will be fewer traumas if parents heed this advice. Parents need to continue to address their child’s continuing fears and heightened need to feel safe and secure. Unfortunately, in really difficult times there is a tendency for fearful adults to go into their own child state and not pay sufficient attention to the needs of children.

Aware parents will notice predictable signs of stress like shock and confusion, fear, anxiety and withdrawal. These may take the form of sleep disturbances, heightened separation anxiety, regression to an earlier stage, anger or acting out resentments. During this time it is good to have children express their feelings verbally, or during play activities with dolls, puppets or drawing. It is important that they get their feelings out in healthy ways, not repress them so that they are sabotaged psychologically in the future.

If the stress reaction does not go away in a timely manner, it is a good investment to take children to a child psychologist that has the expertise in how to help them resolve the issue. It is no different than taking children to a physician when symptoms of ill health are prevalent. The old adage of it’s better to be safe than sorry makes a lot of sense here.

Be Available

The second guideline is to make yourself available to talk about sensitive subjects as they arise. Far too many parents are working too hard, are too stressed or too busy with their own life to make themselves available to talk to their children when the need arises.

“Why do people have to die?”

“Will I die?”

“Where do pets go when they die?”

“What does she mean when she says, ‘I’m a lesbian?’”

“What is an abortion?”

“Why are people so uptight about whether abortions should be legal?”

“What is the Ku Klux Klan?”

“Why is there war?”

“Why can’t people agree and not fight or kill each other?”

“When is using drugs abuse?”

“Is Uncle John an alcoholic?”

“Why are Aunt Tilly’s children in foster care?”

“Why are there homeless people?”

“Where do homeless people live if they don’t have a home?”

“What’s wrong with that man who stares off into space and talks to himself?”

These are a few of the questions that children may think of as they observe their world. However, there are some subjects children won’t think of, so sometimes it’s up to you to bring up the subject that they should know about. If you aren’t sure how to answer these questions, start preparing. What you say will have a lasting impact, and it may keep your child safe.

Bring up the Subject If Your Child Doesn’t

What is pedophilia? Incest? Rape? When is it okay for someone else to touch your private parts – and how and for what purpose? A physician? A stranger, neighbor or relative? Tell children that pedophiles are very smooth talkers; they’re creative. They’re rarely the weird-looking guy who pulls up by the curb and asks, “Do you want to go for a ride?” They can be found where children hang out. They may be coaches, teachers or members of the clergy – even members of your family, which is a really hard one for parents to face, but must be talked about in order to make sure that your children are safe. Pedophiles most often look perfectly reputable. They’re charming; and they love children. They may be hard-working, caring and giving. They are like the rest of us, except that they’re sexually aroused by children and may act on their impulses.

How are you going to protect your children from a pedophile? It is not enough to tell children not to talk to strangers or never to get into strangers’ cars. A “friend” or a family member in the overwhelming majority of child molestation cases is someone that the child already knows. Until the pedophile behaves inappropriately, no one suspects any danger. It’s better to warn and to continuously explain, “No one has a right to touch your private parts unless you say so. Your body belongs to you.”

Help children be self-determined about their bodies. Now, there are exceptions, of course, for example, a doctor or a parent. But what if even these people aren’t behaving responsibly? Teach your child to tell a trusted grown-up and keep no secrets about uncomfortable touching. “If someone, anyone, touches you and it doesn’t feel right to you, tell me or tell someone else you trust.”

Another subject to bring up with your child is what to do in an emergency, such as a fire in the house or if someone passes out. They can call 911 or your local emergency hotline. Explain that the police help people who are in danger, and then show them how to call the police or even the fire department.

Keep What You Say Appropriate to the Age of Your Child

Young children can only absorb a small amount of information at a time, and some information needs to be repeated several times. Knowledge is expansive; you’ll continue to add to what they’ve already learned. What you say to a boy-crazy 14-year-old girl about AIDS is very different from what you say to a five-year-old child hearing the term for the first time. Don’t offer more information than a child can absorb.

As children develop, you will need to expand their knowledge on numerous sensitive subjects. By introducing sensitive subjects early, it won’t feel so awkward later to add to the child’s information than if you try to talk about it with no introduction.

We are fortunate now to have a large body of children’s literature available to parents where an author has researched the best way to explain sensitive subjects to children. The drawings to illustrate the subject have been well thought out and presented. If you want to know more about children’s literature on a particular subject for a certain age range, of course, look on the internet. But a frequently unused expert that you can rely on is the librarian at your local library. They know how to research and find just about anything.

Look for Teachable Moments

A teachable moment is when a child is willing to receive information, such as when there is a situation that needs more explaining. An example of this would be when there is news that several people are talking about such as a new development in the family or the neighborhood. When a child asks for information, it’s generally a good time to discuss a sensitive subject. There is an endless array of news items about celebrities that your child will be exposed to that will open the door for you to talk about sensitive subjects.

Of course, if a child asks where babies come from while you are in an awkward social situation, like having the boss over for dinner or at a wedding, simply set a time to discuss the subject when it is more private. If the child asks at a time that you are unable to adequately respond, say that we will talk about it later, and then don’t forget to do it. Two people have to be ready to communicate — not just one. This also applies to times when you are totally unprepared to answer intelligently. Say, let me think about this, I’ll get back to you.

The best techniques to use in talking about sensitive subjects is to use receptive listening when your children express their views and feelings, and use “I-statements” when you express your own.

Jayne A. Major, Ph. D. is the author of Breakthrough Parenting: Moving Your Family from Struggle to Cooperation which she has taught for the last 25 years. Please visit http://BreakthroughParentingOnline.com for more parenting resources including online parenting classes and community.